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Editor-in-Chief

Joe Keyes writes about music.

10.05.09

Headlights, Wildlife

Label: Polyvinyl Records

Champaign-Urbana's Headlights are masters of the soft sell. Their 2008 masterpiece, Some Racing, Some Stopping, found them moving away from the haze of feedback that defined their early albums, opting instead for a hushed, measured approach to songwriting, one that swaddled Tristan Wraight and Erin Fein's vocals in cotton and nestled them at the center of twinkling guitars and sighing synths. For the patient, the experiment worked: Some Racing was full of the kinds of… read more »

Editor-in-Chief

Joe Keyes writes about music.

10.05.09

Headlights, Wildlife

Label: Polyvinyl Records

Champaign-Urbana's Headlights are masters of the soft sell. Their 2008 masterpiece, Some Racing, Some Stopping, found them moving away from the haze of feedback that defined their early albums, opting instead for a hushed, measured approach to songwriting, one that swaddled Tristan Wraight and Erin Fein's vocals in cotton and nestled them at the center of twinkling guitars and sighing synths. For the patient, the experiment worked: Some Racing was full of the kinds of songs that slowly worked their way into your bloodstream — tender, unassuming melodies that grew in resonance with time and attention.

Wildlife is, somehow, an even better record than its predecessor. It's quieter and stranger and sadder, a record about death and divorce and departures, and about the fact that we're all headed toward the same grim finale whether we like it or not. Unsurprisingly, it was recorded under fractious circumstances: the band finished the album with touring guitarist John Owen, decided they didn't like the results, parted with Owen and recorded it again, scaling it down even further.

If there are any pop hits — and that's debatable — they come early. "I Don't Mind at All" is a breathless chug driven by a gleaming guitar and understated melody. "Get Going" is probably the closest the group gets to repeating Some Racing's formula, Wraight crooning quietly over a gentle acoustic strum. But even that song is strangely deterministic: it's opening lyric is "Buildings come down and buildings go up."

If the front of Wildlife is all foreshadowing, it's the back half where Wilderness settles into its skin. The final five songs feel more like a single suite than isolate compositions, all of them reliant on a hazy of synths and _Fein's practically-whispered vocals. "Wisconsin Beaches" is a smokelike wisp of a song, barely-there guitar and Fein's melancholy singing. It's remarkable in its smallness.

But what's most alarming is how candid the band is about their conclusions. The record's thesis is delivered by Fein in its final third, over a bed of quietly vibrating guitar: "It seems decisions have such consequence," she sings, "the later that it gets/ and nobody's got your back/ not even your friends/ they can't — they're too busy growing old." That the song is called "Dead Ends" just underscores her point.

All of which makes Wlidlife sound like a downer — which, in a way, it is. But it's bigger and better than that: it's a band daring to face life's more unruly questions and to acknowledge that, in most cases, the answers are ugly. Near the end of the record they bring out a song called "We're All Animals," one in which Fein's vocal melody mimics opening track "Telephone"'s guitar line. In the latter it's strangely triumphant, but here Fein is subdued, singing, "black clouds cover your shoulders/ I know you believe when I told you/ that death will wait for you and me." As grim as it is, the song's bigger heartbreak comes in the chorus, because that's where Wraight and Fein ask the impossible. And they know it, but that doesn't stop them from breathing in deep, closing their eyes and asking it anyway. Summoning whatever belief in God and love and goodwill and miracles they still have left, in the final moments of a record about loss, they clasp hands and sing their single hopeful request:

Mellow...

This is definitely one of the best albums so far. I listen to some of their other stuff and this seems to have the most songs that I really like on it. Initially I thought this was an album to cherry pick, but on a second look on the songs are golden. BUY THEM ALL.

Stunning

I'll admit, I'm a huge fan so my review is incredibly bias. However, I've been going to their shows, well, since the first one, so I do know their music. With that said, this is 1) Headlights' best effort 2) an important and beautiful album. I've aged with this band and now in my late 20s, the questions in life get more complicated and the answers are never as pretty as they used to be. This album reflects much of that sentiment. "Secrets" "Dead Ends" are rocker stand outs on the album. "Wisconsin Beaches" and "Love song for Buddy" are fantastic songs with a newer sound that the band hasn't explored before. But really, great album start to finish. Also, see them live. It's a blast.

Headlights’ third album, Wildlife, is at once their most immediate album and also their most reserved-sounding and emotionally powerful. Recorded over a relatively short period of time but punctuated by false starts, frustrations, and departures of bandmembers, the band ultimately ended up with an intimate and very personable sound. Using first takes and almost no production tricks, the strength of the record lies in the unadorned emotion of Erin Fein’s vocals, and the wonderfully sweet and heartfelt songs the group wrote. While there may be no break-out hits on par with “Cherry Tulips” from 2008′s Some Racing, Some Stopping, and the overall tone of the record is less joyous and more thoughtful, there are still quite a few songs that have some punch and forward motion. The sweetly sung “Get Going” and the rocked-out “I Don’t Mind at All” have a rollicking feel that calls to mind the group’s earlier work and gives some balance to the ballads that make up the core of the album. These slow and dream-like songs, like the ’50s-inspired tracks “You and Eye” and “Dead Ends,” the drifting “Teenage Wonder,” and the heartbreakingly heavy “Slow Down Town” drift through the speakers like sleepwalking ghosts and deliver a truly aching sense of loss and sadness that’s hard to shake. Despite its few moments of easygoing rocking, Wildlife has a tenderness that the band may not have been able to convey in the past, a bruised heart that they haven’t displayed before. Some of the fans the band won over with “Cherry Tulips” may find it rough going at times, and find themselves wishing there were more good-time tunes on offer, but if they can get past that initial bump, the album is an emotionally powerful, melodically rich work that adds a new dimension to Headlights that is quite welcome. – Tim Sendra